Answers

hmmm...Japan in meltdown...Russia defaulting...Brazil in
bailout...Indonesia rioting...Korea crumbling...Venezuela reeling...
looks like everybody thinks the US is a safe haven.
And y2k is approaching. This is gonna be *way* interesting...

"It is said that the market cannot discount more than 6 months out.
By this theory, y2k cannot be an influence until July or so."

"Historically, market investors were savy, well informed people. Now
the masses are investing. Taking into account how the "sheeple" feel
about y2k, it could account for the current exuberance. That's the
only reason I can think of, other than US markets being the "last
global heaven".

and to recap just how stupid people can be, lets not forget the great
tulip panic: (from another author)

Before closing, let me impart a few incredible facts about
Tulipomania, for those who aren't too familiar with it. It occurred in
the mid 1600s in, you
guessed it -- Holland. Galbraith expresses some wonder that the
speculation of the times didn't settle on real estate or magnificent
Dutch paintings, but
on tulips: "Nothing more improbable ever contributed so
wonderfully to the mass delusion here examined." The story is pretty
much the same one as I
described in my fictitious feather fable above. By 1636, a tulip
bulb originally worth very little would fetch "a new carriage, two
grey horses and a
complete harness." This wasn't even the peak. These bulbs often
weren't even planted -- just exchanged for higher and higher prices.
Galbraith retells a
painful story of a foreign visitor in a Dutchman's house
mistaking a tulip bulb worth $25,000 to $50,000 for an onion and
eating it. Ouch.

Fools are hereby advised to stop and smell the flowers, but never
to get caught up in reckless financial speculation about flowers,
penny stocks, beany
babies and other improbabilities.

Don't leave out that company growth rates are at there lowest since
1970 and price to earnings ratio is at its highest since 1929. I am
going to short amazon.com to the tune of 500 shares very soon. This
time period in my humble opinion is the best chance in my lifetime to
make a killing shorting the market. Something for everyone to take a
look at.
Mike

Heh...lots of people have lost their shirts shorting high-flying
stocks. Yeah, the price may be way high now, but that don't mean it
won't go way higher before it collapses, by which time you've lost
everything. Bear in mind that Amazon did a billion dollars in sales
last year, so they're a little more substantial than tulip bulbs.
Their stock is high because everyone know ecommerce is the wave of
the future...I don't expect stocks to really collapse until Y2K panic
kicks in for real. Just my opinion.